


Love Is The Best Medicine

by Zetal (Rodinia)



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Cas's Wings Are Badly Damaged, M/M, Sam and Cas's Mutual Respect, wing fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-08
Updated: 2017-10-08
Packaged: 2019-01-10 13:36:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,479
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12300234
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rodinia/pseuds/Zetal
Summary: Castiel's been dealing with pain, but eventually, he can't do it anymore.  Sam helps him out, and it leads to a nice talk.





	Love Is The Best Medicine

**Author's Note:**

> Response to an anon Tumblr prompt: "I wish you'd write a fic where..."  
> "...where Castiel is not handling his damaged wings nearly as well as he pretends for the brothers, and the difficulty of trying to groom them by himself instead of with a trusted friend or partner only makes it worse. Cue Sam happening upon a frustrated Castiel who desperately needs help grooming his ragged wings and would love for the man he's secretly in love with to help, if he wasn't so ashamed to show Sam his wings in such a state. Sam is gentle and loving and grateful to be of assistance."

It wasn’t unusual for Castiel to be hard to find. Normally, Sam wouldn’t have thought anything of it. It’s just that this time, there wasn’t anything going on that he knew of. No Apocalypse, no civil war in Heaven, Crowley had Hell quiet, so they’d all agreed to take a break from hunting for a while and just work in the Bunker, figuring out what all they had now. Sam intended to take the books, while Dean looked through artifacts, and Castiel went back and forth as needed.

It had been hours since Castiel had said that Dean needed his help with something. Sam ran into a book he thought might be cursed and went to find Castiel for help, only for Dean to tell him that Castiel had said Sam needed his help and he’d be in the library all day. Now they were both worried. Dean couldn’t leave what he was doing very easily – he was right at a stage of putting something together where leaving would undo it all and possibly break it – so Sam was the one to go looking.

It took a while, but Sam finally heard Castiel’s voice coming from a storage room. “Cas?”

“Sam?” Castiel’s voice was quiet and somewhat pained-sounding. “What are you doing down here?”

“I was looking for you. What’s wrong?” Sam tested the door, but it was locked. “Can you open the door?”

“No! No, I’m fine… I’m just… I needed time alone. Really, I’m fine. Just…”

Sam rolled his eyes. “Cas, come on. What’s wrong? Is there anything I can do to help?”

“There’s…” Castiel hissed in pain. “Fine. Give me a minute.” Sam waited while Castiel unlocked the door. “This is kind of a big deal for me, so please, try not to be too disappointed in me.”

Sam kept his skepticism to himself as the door swung open. What he saw was a shock. Castiel had his wings out, something Sam had never truly seen before, and they looked terrible. “What happened, Cas?”

“I’ve… been ignoring the damage they’ve taken. It’s difficult to care for them without help. In Heaven, it’s much easier – my brothers and sisters in my garrison and I all looked after each other, helping to maintain and heal our wings. Down here, I’m on my own.”

“I can help, can’t I? I mean, you’ll have to teach me what to do, but it’s gotta be better than trying to do it yourself…”

“You can. It’s just that…”

“What, Cas? What’s wrong?”

Castiel’s wings shook and he wouldn’t meet Sam’s eyes. “My wings should be so much better than this. So much brighter, stronger, more beautiful. I’m ashamed to let someone I care about see them this way.”

“You met Dean in Hell. You were there when I was drinking demon blood. I think we can say you’ve seen us doing things we’re a lot more ashamed of than you should be of your injured wings.”

Castiel shook his head. “It’s not… that’s not the same. An angel’s wings are… it’s difficult to explain. Under normal circumstances, an angel displaying their wings to a human would be a declaration to Heaven that they are claiming that human as family, as equal to the Host. I’m sure you can imagine why an angel intending to do such a thing would want their wings to be in pristine condition.”

“Yeah, I can. I’m not going to read anything into this, Cas, this is about you needing help. Don’t be ashamed.” Sam went to kneel behind Castiel. “What do I do?”

“For now, look for dead or dying feathers and pull them. Then they need to be washed,” Castiel pointed to a bucket of soap and water, “and there’s a salve I’ve mixed to rub into the skin, to promote healthy feather growth. I’m not sure what else is wrong with my wings, it’s so difficult to check them properly myself, so if you come across something that doesn’t feel right, tell me what you feel.”

Castiel closed his eyes and kept his head down while Sam worked on the wings, fingers gently brushing away rough skin and dead feathers and pulling the dying ones firmly and swiftly. Castiel whimpered a couple times when Sam came across sensitive patches, and Sam tried to avoid touching areas that looked too painful any more than he had to.

Castiel hissed as soap got into an open wound. “I’m sorry, Cas, but I gotta do this. You okay? Need a break?”

“No. Keep going. You’re doing remarkably well. Any angel I’ve ever known would have been much less considerate, and probably spent the whole time lecturing me as well just to be sure I learned my lesson. I’m very grateful that you aren’t.”

“I’m pretty sure you know you shouldn’t let it get this bad. I’m happy to help you.” Sam started scrubbing again, watching as a bit of… blood? Maybe? It was glowing gold instead of red, but there’d be no reason for an angel’s wings to bleed human blood… tinged the water. Despite the bald patches and open sores, Castiel’s wings looked so much better already. Sam grabbed a towel to dry off the wings as carefully as possible. “Is the salve going to sting?”

“Probably, but it will help. Thankfully I don’t have to worry about infection, but toxins could still be a problem.” Castiel clenched his hands in his lap while Sam started applying the salve as carefully as he could.

Once he was finished, Sam set the salve aside. “Anything else that needs to be done?”

“Not that I know of… you didn’t feel anything odd in the muscles or the bone structure, did you?”

“No.”

“Then I should just need time to heal. It would help if you would do this again in a week or so, but as long as I’m not using my wings, they should heal on their own now.”

“Just say the word and I’ll help any time you want. Your wings are beautiful, even like this, and I’d like to see them when they’re in a state you’d feel proud of.”

Castiel smiled softly. “Is that a flirtation?”

“Huh? No! It wasn’t… oh my god.” Sam buried his face in his hands. “That’s what you meant? It’s an angel courtship thing?”

“Yes. No one would hold you to it, given the circumstances, but for an angel to choose a human to care for their wings instead of going to their comrades would be practically a declaration of intent to marry. In this case, since friendly angels are so difficult for me to come by, it just means that I trust you enough to ask you to do this for me. Eventually.”

“Wow. Can you, um, never tell Dean that? The jokes would be…”

“Dean will not hear it from me. I have no desire to hear the jokes either.” Castiel stood up, and his wings vanished.

Castiel had almost made it to the library when it hit Sam that Castiel had sounded disappointed that Sam hadn’t realized what he was saying. Sam ran to the library. “How else do angels flirt with humans?”

Castiel looked up from the book Sam had left out. “Sam?”

“If an angel were interested in a human, how would the human know about it?”

“Angels are usually very direct. If a human attracts their interest, they’ll say so, unless they have a good reason to keep quiet.”

“What if they’re afraid of ruining a good friendship?”

“Were you aware this book is cursed?”

“I thought so, that’s why I was looking for you in the first place… Cas? Are you interested in me?”

“Does it matter?”

“Yes, it matters! It matters because I love you, and if you’re interested in me too, then we really should do something about that.”

“So this curse…” Castiel turned away from the book and stared at Sam. “Wait. You love me?”

“Yes.”

“That explains a lot, then.”

“Hmm?”

Castiel came to Sam and wrapped him up in a hug. “If an angel had done for me what you did, they would have had to be constantly using their grace to mute the pain, or dealt with a good deal of screaming. I’ve heard, though this was the first time I’ve experienced it, that love acts to counteract the pain as well. I’m sorry my wings are so battered, but perhaps, once they’ve recovered, you’ll allow me to display them properly.”

“I’d like that.” Sam’s arms came up around Castiel. “The curse can wait till tomorrow morning, right?”

“Yes. You, however, need food. Go eat something.”

“All right… but then you’ll come to my room and we can talk about this?” Castiel promised he would, so Sam went looking for the quickest thing he could find to make that would satisfy Castiel that he was properly fed.


End file.
